Editorial November 18, 1944 Issue

Why Be Thankful?

John Randall Dunn

In the United States, when we turn a fresh page on our calendar and find that November is upon us, are we not apt to think about and possibly plan for that happy American festival, Thanksgiving, which is celebrated the last of this month? Regarding such feast days as Thanksgiving and Chrismas, our beloved Leader, Mary Baker Eddy, says: "At this happy season the veil of time springs aside at the touch of Love. We count our blessings and see whence they came and whither they tend" (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 256).

So important did our Leader consider Thanksgiving Day that her Church Manual provides for a service thereon, at which is read a specially prepared Lesson-Sermon. It is gratifying to note that in Christian Science churches overseas in some cases this service is held on the day of the official American Thanksgiving; in other places overseas it is held on New Year's Day; in Canada it is usually held on the date of the Canadian national celebration. So every earnest Christian Scientist eagerly seeks out, in the last Quarterly of the year, the Lesson-Sermon on "Thanksgiving."

What flood tides of inspiration are opened by the Golden Text of the Thanksgiving lesson this year! We read, "Thanks be unto God, which always causeth us to triumph in Christ..." If he is steadfastly turning his gaze from discordant materiality to the Christ, Truth, and learning that harmony alone is reality, there can be no defeat and only triumph for the Christian Science worker. Is not this cause for rejoicing, for heartfelt gratitude?

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